and in94, i me my bth motr in kor and lot of pple ked me, ke o how d you exrience i", you ow ? d they'rall thinng yoknow "oh, thamust bevery etional,"nd so on. ♪ i thinback there is so much emotion . it's too much for somebody and that means they go num b. they c't fee anytng anymo . i saw myself hugging this mother and so n. of crse, younow, ey were, erybodwas crng but wai cryingbecausi was sad? i don't know-- maybe i was cryi ng because everybody expected it, you kno w? and at tt timei was ju lik ea robo you know? i di't feel ything after found myirth motr, tried toalk

to mparent buit was catastrhe . itas just kind of like the world crashed . i was diagnosed, basically with pts d, st-traatic strs disord . i just didn't want to live anymore. i went up to schoo l,anso many mes, i st stoodhere on e ledg anthough like, hould i mp ?" so i told mylf you knowi convincemyself "maybe not today, but i want to live another ten days ." but many tis, i... was rlly clos you kno w?

coe-sampson: wle in koa, i nt on tevision on the msing perns show. i di't hear anythi fromha t. and en one d i t a phonca ll fr a gentlan nam davidwho says he's broth . this fily saw pictureof mon tv inor d he wanted make coact d for uso get toth er d to, toome ck into e family.i waelated th had beesearchin for mell theseears . he had a ster, angie who lid inaltimore. shwould ha been myiste bueach of wererom diffent fath s. coe-sampso this istacy this i..and th is simone . simo: hi. angie: hi!cooke-mpson:

simone, is is gi e. (lauing, talng at on ) you t my auns nose my momad a nosjob. oke-sason: o h. ane: you a like, me like . oke-sampn: the a t? ane: and , i'm inetween upere isot.. i'm li my fath piure of mfather and the ttom part m a. anyou, thipart is ur mom stacy: y h.mommy, is like lking the mir r. - i don'know, ok. - nd of clhes you ar . and u wear yr pantsup higlike that. coe-sampso angie id my maeris ms we very mu like thmother and shtold mthe moer hajust pasd away ohthis w last apl-- twaprils ago ? o years o? - s. we aeed that thoughtit'd bbe st th i got ana tes (in re): - (repeang ): love youmom. - -h m! cool

. coe-sampn: lete seeif you're gonnbe diffilt . - my vein's good. i do belve it, aost 10 thathe is myister, u know (talng softly) gie: so at's it?cooke-mpson: tt's it ll see y, and t's hopend prayhat th.. . - ohme, too,e, too ...that 'll be o wee k. hope, onweek, wel be llineach oth siste - yeahi hope s - mm-h . (birdshirpin dae-n kim: it's a jrney whe i slowly stted to lrn, like who i ? grew up switzerndbut i'm rean, period

. i d to lea a lot othings emotns .sadnes for exale . i felt.. . (clearthroat):sorr y. ye, i talkbout tt, then, ah, i fe sad, yoknow ? so... lears that ) (eales ) i was not mb anymo. ♪ oke-sampson: got t dna testing. gie and vid we definity related.i wano t.

i had thght mae now my heartould rest at i hady family and think th if iad not bn throug h what i hadeen throug i n't thini wod've hadthe moracourag say to em "i wt to get dna tting ."i coulhave eily slipd righinto theamil y, and,elievee, at thoug crossedy mind cause wh i saw how wondful the mily i veryuch want to bpart of e family. but i codn't be shones ani thout to myself, u was adoed onc don't wa to badopted ice. " ♪ (saking koan )

reporter(speakg korean (reporr speaki korean) - (speing korean) reporter(speakg korean- (speing kore ): ♪

dae-won m: weroduced is book, and it sws, basilly, lik pictes from opte es whare loing for theiparent we disibute th bookletto disict offi sand otheplaces wre bih parentwould go o they e inrestedto find eir chilen . ♪ cooke-sason: we wereravelinground, we wt to oneit d it had train stion and it jged my mor yof whe i possibl woulhave beefrom . i st have me from the ut h.

minyng kim (speakinkorean): receptnist andinyounki m: receptiost : nyoungim: soaccordinto this cument whicwas written in95 5, your namwas kangyun-sook and yo baptismame s esther. hoaccurateas thi so was boron march 1 19? hodid i t septem r? ♪ at i wand to finout was, d my motr reallyring m to therphanage or was a true phan the sen that sobody fod me in trash c or on the chur steps osomething? minyou kim: so this is a baptism cument

of kids her.. this is your name-- kang hyun-sook . sether e?father, informaon anyou are xed-race and ur mom bught youer e.- (quily): mother ought meer e? so... (saks kore) is is, mns "mom." (wom speakinkorean) - she thks your m got yo baized and brght youto thiorphanage. (cooke-spson cryin g) (sobbi): ank yofor everhing . cooksampso i also member other oranage bere st. pl' s.♪ cooke-mpson: oh, my gdness, ts is. oman speing kore ) cooke-sampso thisne...

this looks ke this uld be m ♪ mioung kim let see. - (cryin: i ink. .. (speakinkorean): - obs, cou s) peaking rean ): eporter eaking kean) ♪

trenka:the und-motherssue s been hden om koreasoci y. so we'veried to in g awarenesto kor on thasubjec anone of t ways th we'vdone that is thrgh a sgle momsda y. (speakinkorean udience apauding) ♪ (speakg korean ): - track ands fortruth anreconciltion

for the option cmunity kor anwe want investi te the pastnd prese adopon practes in ko a soe can crte a betr ture fororean falies .i ink inrder to duce therate oadoptionof child nwho arbeing se overasrom korea, primari have to take ca of t single thers.♪ i was souc tonow e love ofy kore mothe i thk that hped me t be moreympathet to the milies at lost eir chilen and so the ued mothers o are stggling keep thr childr . ♪ parents o lost cldren to adopt n, adopes, and wyer s, and thenlso the wed mothers,ormed a alitio we wanteto chang the spial adopon l aw th governsinternional adtion we'rmaking o own bil l that hefully wl go the natnal assely

and th thibillwe hopto priitiz ethe rit of theingle moer to kp her ch dinstead of sding the for option. stok: not aladopteesant sea h for their birth families but for those o do we wanted access to birth family record s for all adoptees . more financial support and community suppor t for women who are unmarrie d and who want to raise their children . trenka: we went and talked with a lot of lawmaker s, saying, "we want tpreserve families first "a then dostic adoion okay, d then iernation adopon is ok ." for once, weeren't the objects these picies. we were actually taking some initiative for ourselve s. ♪ dae-wokim: onef the things i nted to achieve is dual citizenship for

adoptees because korean l aw did not permit dual citizenship at al l. i decided, "let's do something about it ." basically, a signature campaign on a worldwide basis . weent itut everywher e, and we also puished press reas e theorean dia out wh weanted tochieve an basical, within wee k, minist of juice ntacd us anwe had my meetings . eventually the law went to the parliament, it passed. i becamehe firstdoptee getorean cizenship ck. ♪ felt very prd and tisfied, cause fome, persally

it was somhing that w taken ay from m e ainst own wl, d i goit bac (singi in swedh) arctdius: i el very oted d close th my falyer e. d i feelappy th my chdhoo d. t i havehis loss and al i have is curioty so iant to srch r my bir famil ♪ so tried d nothincame of . when was youer was thinng abt my bir mothe bui felt tt wh i grew de r, came morclose to h er beuse i wachanginginto aoman

likehe must ve beenwhen s had m ani was loing self in e mirror ani was thking 'm seeinher. " sot feels like ve met her in e mior. ♪ cooke-sason: i ft like iad finay come tthe ple ere i had toucd the eah before. seeing tt photographconfirmed th, indeed, i was om someere down in bu n. i didn realizehat i waat a ohanage for mixechildr . (vce breing): itas a was a hpier time. ♪

there's no doubt in my md th for probly 80%or morof korea that ty do notcknowled the xed kids.that ty do not acknowlge wh happened in theas t. but belong tthis cou just as ch as an othechild bo her e. eople lking inackground) (pple laugng, talk otograph: read one, tw tee (people ughing)(all sinng in koan )

(sinng conties) (song continues) cooke-sampson: "50% korean, 100% me ." (song continue s) ♪

♪ del to: st up to date on america reframed at worldchannel.or g. subscribe to world channel's youtub e to go beyond the lens with our filmmakers . tell us what you think using #americareframed . del toro: major funding for america reframed was provided b y the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation wyncotfoundation the corporation for public broadcastin g. additional funding for americreframed provided b y open society foundations acton family givin g, park foundatio n, the national endowment for the arts

and the reva and david log foundation . additional funding f this episode was provided by phi lambda charitable trust. ♪ ♪ recently, i decided to go on the journey to go find my da d, a man that i hadn't seen in 30 years. i remember the last time that i ever spoke to my da d. i was eight years ol d. i don't remember what it was . maybe he didn't come for a visi t, or he missed my birthday or didn't get me a present . i don't quite remember but i do remember feeling angr y. i remember feeling hur

t. and my mom encouraged me to tell him how i felt . now my mom never dmouthed my da d. she never said he was bad guy or he was a bad father . and i think even at that young age i knew what she want ed and i think i knew what was expecte d. so when my mom encouraged me to tell him how i felt i remember calling him up on the phon e, my mom was next to me on the couch and i blamed him for this thing, or that thin g, and i don't even remembe r. but i remember the last thin g i ever said to my dad on the phone . and i yelled into the phon e, "i don't ever want to see you ain !" and i didn't for 30 year s. when i finally did decide to reach out to my dad i went on facebook . i knew he lived in new jerse y because i remember visiting him

ther e. so i typed in my last name . i ped new jerse y. i wasn't really expectin g to find my 70-year-old dad on faceboo k, but i also knew that i had two half-sisters . so i think in the back of my mind i was thinkin g, "maybe i'll find my two half-sister s, and maybe i'll connect with my dad that way ." so as i'm like scrolling through the result s, eventually my gaze focused on this woman . she looked so familiar . i didn't know her, but i recognized her smile because she had my smile . so i messaged he r, and i said "do you know so and so ?" i gave her my dad's last nam e. "i think we're related ." she didn't answer me for quite a whil e, but she did eventually respond and she said "he's my uncle. who are you? " and just like that i had a new cousin . we eventually did connect by phone

and we chatte d. i was so nervous because this was the first tim e in three decades that i have any contact with that si de of the famil y. we talked about the family how i grew u p. the most surprising thing that came out of that conversatio n was that she told me she knew i existed . she used to see pictures of me in my grandparents' basement . but whenever the topic of me would come u p, it was quickly brushed under the ru g. she eventually did ask me whether or n ot she wanted her to share the information with my da d to contact m e. and i said "absolutely, please. " a couple of days later my dad called me . we chit-chatted for a little while it was really superficia l, and the conversation was over in about 20 minute s. it was one of the most awkward conversations i have ever ha d. and at the end of the call i said, "we should meet up ." but we didn'

t. not for another year . i thought i was ready when i began this journey. but because of all the emotion s that got dragged up during this, uh, connection i started feeling the hu rt and the ange r. but not the way i used t o. because i think time does that . a year after that, i went down to new jersey to go me my da d for the first time . a couple of days before th at i had connected with my two half-sisters and they told me that my dad was extremely nervou s to meet with m e. he didn't know if i was going to be angry if i was going to lash out what i was going to sa y. i met with my dad at a diner near his house . i got out of the car and i saw a man that looke d exactly like m e. only 30 years olde

r. i gave him a hug . i don't think he expected that . we went inside the diner and we ordered and we chit-chatted for a whil e. and eventually he asked me "what do you want to kno w? i'll tell you anything you want to know ." i think i've been waiting for this moment for 30 yea rs and now i couldn't even look him in the eye . so i looked down, and i said "i want to know if the memories that i have are mine . "i want to know where i came fro m. and i want to know what happened. " i didn't ask him the questio n that i really wanted an answer to which was, "why weren't you aroun d? why didn't you try harder? " he started to tell me about the memories that he had . he told me that he didn't blame

my mother for leaving hi m because he knew he wasn't strong enough to keep he r. he told me that we used to have weekend visits togethe r. but whenever he dropped me off my mother would start a fight with him and he didn't want to figh t. she would tell him not to come and eventually she moved and didn't tell him where we were goin g. it just got too hard . and i don't know if he meant that it was too hard for him or it was too hard for me, or the both of u s. he also told me that he thought about me all the time, especially during my birthday, and new year's . and he told me that he never moved because in the back of his min d, he knew that i wouldind hi one da y. well, i guess here we ar e. we talked that day for about three hour s. and as he walked me back to my

ca r, we made plans to meet up a month after that . it was my dad's 71st birthda y. and he asked me, "are you happy that you came ? did you get what you were looking for ?" and i thought a lot about that on my way up back to bosto n. "did you get what you were looking for? " i think we both got what we were looking for that day . i got my answe rs and he got forgiveness .

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(druoll playg) nouncer: wh is yourame, plee? my ne is anndagg. my namis anne gg. my namis anndagg. annocer: i, ne dagg,m a univerty lectur in zoogy